some students will intrinsically perform better

Perform better at what?

Most people have a natural talent for certain categories of things, and suck at others. That's the problem with all IQ tests, or "performance" tests: they don't take into account that there are many forms of intelligence.

I was typing something really insightful about this and the stupid page reloaded and it all disappeared.

CTRL-R is a bitch. Can't handle a simple computer keyboard? Perhaps you're one of the "other half".

All your points are valid, but I wanted to clear a few things
a) rainwater
You have the right to it as a landlord/owner, but maybe not the tenant
Also
You pay in most counties in Florida for water in (water bill), and water out (sewer tax), so rainwater systems have no cost to the system since rainwater cannot be piped into a home without it being taxed as a home improvement. Most places in the USA, the gray water installation for the home, not the garden, has to be inspected and your taxes are adjusted accordingly, if you are subject to the sewer tax is another thing IDK

b) Growing your own food
That's completely off topic, since you are not responsible to the producer

c) Leases
If the leases are in your own home without any feed to the system, then you can install, but you cannot get any tax benefit (state wide) since you are not the owner of the system.

Having access to over 100000 sqft of usable sun facing roof space spread over multiple clients' homes, I spent a while researching this, and ran into the same problem. Leasing platform or having some 3rd party agreement with a producer will not provide a return of any sort on the invested capital. So the only solution I found was to tell my clients to get them installed, make sure they have net metering and talk to the accountant and get whatever tax break they could find. No real money is being made, but since they are snowbirds, they have a huge credit for the winter.

The problem is that the energy created, is fed into the power lines at retail, which the truth, it should be fed into the system at 50% or less than retail. and what the leasing people are trying to do is force the producers (power companies) to buy retail...

Now imagine 100000 sqft should generate about 800 to 1200 KW at peak, that's got to help cut down on carbon, which I am happy to say I've done a little bit too help.

yep, correct, the lease business model states that they sell at full consumer rates to the electric company, not at the producers rate ( which is cheaper )

so then I have to ask you...

I own 100K sqft of usable, full sunshine roofs
I lease that out and sell it at full market
I get YOU and everyone around me to buy at full market rate (via the power company)
I just profited off of you and the electric company
How happy are you going to be that I did not have to pay for
Maintenance of the line carrying my charge, the people that work for the power company
When the hurricanes hit, my house is lit not yours....

Problem is, the lease calls for selling back at consumer rates, not producer rates. That's what is unfair. That simple spread of maybe 3 cents, but those that don't self produce are paying your subsidy.

Very interesting overall...
I wonder if it's possible at all to just retrofit in a modular way.
for example, take 1 power line that goes down a few city blocks and touches 10 stepdown transformers
Could that entire line be taken down along with the transformers and replaced???

I can just see an entire roll out over 15 years and ton of employment if something like that was possible

did you read it?
most likely not, but the source of information is valid,
and I happen not to like him.

I want cheap solar, and it makes lots of sense that the rich can have it, and full credit for it.

Note: I live in Florida
I am not aware that there is a law (federal, state or city) that states, Power companies have to provide Net-metering to an installation.
Electric companies need to make money, they need to service the power lines...

Florida (southern Florida FPL) does welcome net-metering, they credit on a 12 month basis, any overage is a gift to the electric company.
With the above stated, Power companies need to modify the tariff showing that if you want to generate power in excess, you have to pay for line service.

The leasing deals that the writer was talking about is a nifty trick to take advantage of the system, and it's a good trick. But at the end of the day, it's a subsidy that the power companies pay out.

here is a good write up about this issue http://articles.sun-sentinel.c...

Oh, someone swears it's all a-okay. I'm totally reassured now...

Depends: European or African thing?

I want it totally private. Has the concept of privacy gotten so totally lost that people seem okay to settle for relative privacy?

By the way, the best way to keep your data private is to keep it out of your untrusted phone/computer/whatnot, and use bogus data when you need to enter something.

Exemples: use "Acme inc." as your home phone number's name in your addressbook, and nicknames for your contacts. Don't enter your full address as your home in your satnav's app but someone's address in a street close-by, etc.

So, you're saying Chrome is malware?

Depends on the circumstances, doesn't it?

In these cases, the issue is a want (consume content) and not a need (consume food/water/air). So, you are ripping someone else off because you want what they have but do not need it.

And in those circumstances, you are the one being unethical. Only when you have a need that someone acts unfairly to address it, does ethics start to play a role.

Otherwise, you're just being inaccurate and melodramatic.

Why is the installation of Chrome without admin rights a problem?

Not meaning to contradict, just interested in the reasoning.

Shame most of that concrete in China is going to waste, since a large percentage of the buildings they are building has no one using them.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

well I could not help it and let's see what happens when I post this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...